For many years, protectors have been secured to the edges and corners and other surfaces of manufactured articles such as appliances, electronic articles and doors, prior to such articles being packaged to protect the edges, corners and other surfaces of such articles from damage during handling and shipment.
A type of edge and corner protector currently in use is made of paper honeycomb material and is supplied to the manufacturer of the articles to be packaged in flat form. The panels of the protector are thereafter folded by the manufacturer, then taped, glued or stapled so that the protector remains folded, and then is applied to the edges or corners of the article to be shipped.
A problem associated with the use of this type of corner protector is that it requires an extra manufacturing step, i.e., taping, gluing, or stapling during the folding operation. There is also a tendency to unfold and fall off the article prior to the article being packaged, thus complicating and unnecessarily decreasing the efficiency of the packing operation. Thus, there remains a need for a corner protector which does not require taping, gluing, or stapling during the folding operation and which will not unfold and fall off the edge or corner of the article prior to or during packaging the article.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,511,667 to Carder discloses a honeycomb corner protector which is supplied to the manufacturer in a flat form. The protector comprises a panel including panel portions which are folded along crush slit scores and then interlocked by means of fingers and notches therein. Although this corner protector has proven to be extremely effective and reliable in that it dispenses the need for taping, gluing and stapling, its use is limited to the protection of the corners of articles.
Additionally, all current protectors comprise panels foldable into a perpendicular relationship thus limiting their use to the corners or edges of an article.
The present invention solves these problems by providing a self-locking honeycomb protector with foldable or connectable honeycomb panels which can be used on the edges, corners or other surfaces of an article to be packaged and which is easy to manufacture and assemble.